Only a few hours drive away from Te Anau, we knocked at another door: Leanne and Richard, the parents of my friend Ben, had once hosted me after Ben and I had flown away from the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake; and, coming back to Queenstown, it was a pleasure to see them again. They warmly welcomed us at their new house, and, being true born and bred Kiwis, enlightened us with a lot of opinions about life in New Zealand, a country so far away from the rest of the world, at once isolated and protected by its distance.

Our stay with them was a delightful one, and, being so nearby the Routeburn Track, one of the Great Walks of New Zealand, we took this opportunity to tramp up there, as well as explore the surrounding region in between delicious paleo dinners shared with them and long chats about the country, politics, or philosophy.